Sales on the rise for Stephenson County businesses

FREEPORT — Sales are up at a majority of 102 Stephenson County businesses surveyed last week and nearly half of those business owners say they’d hire more staff and expand if they could find workers with the proper skill sets.

FREEPORT — Sales are up at a majority of 102 Stephenson County businesses surveyed last week and nearly half of those business owners say they’d hire more staff and expand if they could find workers with the proper skill sets.

The survey was conducted by the Northwest Illinois Development Alliance, the region’s business marketing and economic development arm, and results were released last week.

“This was to take a temperature and get a sense of how businesses in Stephenson County are doing and feel about different issues,” said NIDA Executive Director Dave Young. “It was a positive in the sense that we got to talk to that many leaders.”

Young said sales figures were up for more than 68 percent of respondents and more than 45 percent of owners plan to expand their business in the next three years.

“We measured the data against other data to see where we fall,” Young said. “We anticipate expansion projects to bring $33 million in investments to the county that could create 159 new jobs for company expansions.”

The ability to recruiting skilled workers remains a roadblock to business growth, Young said.

“Where we’re starting to have challenges is that most companies have been increasing investments in technology which increases productivity and reduces demand for production labor,” Young said. “That increases a demand in labor for those who support the automation. But in a lot of cases these positions are difficult to recruit because they require more training.”

Jen Newendyke is the director of CareerTEC, an organization that provides career resources to students in Freeport. She said that the surveys are beneficial because business owners’ responses highlight the need for changes to curriculum that will better prepare students for the workforce.

“I’m excited that 102 businesses responded,” Newendyke said. “The most challenging thing is getting a foot in the door. The community as a whole has a role but educators can reinforce that.”

Danielle Rogers, executive director of the Freeport Downtown Development Foundation, said her organization participated in a half dozen surveys with downtown businesses. The survey results will help the advocacy group fashion a strategic plan for downtown development.

“It’s something that we needed so badly,” Rogers said. “The number of respondents was extremely encouraging.”

Rogers is hopeful that questionnaires will continue to be sent out in the future because the needs of the county will constantly change and the results can provide a guide for policy making.

“A lot of this stuff here isn’t new stuff,” Young said. “But this allows us to take information and translate and validate a lot of what we said before. We know what we have to work on but now the question is how as a community we can help companies to continue to grow and expand their businesses.”

Top business sector is manufacturing (20), followed by agriculture (18), retail (15), business services (13) and finance, insurance and real estate (11).

Nonfarm-employed workforce totals 20,660.

67 percent of companies surveyed make a product or provide service in Stephenson County, sell it outside the community and bring profits back that are then invested into the community in the form of new buildings, equipment or jobs.